


Anchor

by phantomhive3108



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Amputation, Angst, M/M, Trespasser - Freeform, anchor, spoiler heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 07:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6228697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomhive3108/pseuds/phantomhive3108
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happy Follower Appreciation to the lovely and talented nadenz! Winner of my 3rd Place Prize (1000 word DA fanfiction) in my giveaway. You’re the kind of reader that keeps me going! Thank you.</p><p>One-shot piece featuring nadenz’s own Inquisitor, Avance (who stole my heart), in the heart-breaking climax of Trespasser’s storyline, where he loses his arm and battles his emotions for our dearest loveable Commander.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anchor

“Get me Cassandra!”

“Avance, there’s no time!”

“I don’t care, I want... him out of here!”

Avance kicked his legs as Dorian pushed him down onto the cot.

“Cullen! Hold him down.”

The Commander moved in.

“No! Get out!” Avance tried in vain to hide the pain from his voice as the searing spread slowly and continuously through his veins. His heart seized. “Gah!”

“Cullen!” Dorian called for the Commander again, who seemed torn between staying and abiding to his Inquisitor’s wishes. “Now! We have to do it now. You! Gabriel! Are you ready?”

The young herbalist was working away furiously in the background.

“Make it strong.” Dorian added.

He nodded and kept pounding away at the mixture in the mortar pot.

Cullen had finally reached the bedside. He hesitated once more before reaching out and placing his hands on Avance’s right arm. When he was allowed the contact he pulled the arm that desperately clutched at his right forearm over and away from his body.

Eventually the pain subsided long enough for Avance to turn to face him, his brow drenched in sweat. He simply looked at Cullen as his breathing became more laboured.

“Let me do this.” Cullen’s words came out softly, a stark contrast to the chaos which seemed to surround Avance since Cass and Dorian had carried him- rather stumbled him- back through the Eluvian.

Avance’s bright eyes bore into him.

So full of life, Cullen thought. He can do this… He has to.

“Trust me… Please.”

The Commander had never been one to beg but he had finally begun to realise he needed the Inquisitor’s approval. He needed him to believe in him. To trust him. To… like him. 

If Cullen hadn’t been watching him so intently back he would have missed the near-imperceptible nod of the head Avance gave.

Gabriel broke through their moment as he arrived with a golden goblet. Cullen silently shunned the herbalist for standing on ceremony and even taking the time to present the anaesthetic in something fit for Avance’s status.

The warrior slipped his arm from Cullen’s grasp, leaving the Commander feeling awkward and useless. Avance proceeded to snatch the goblet, insisting he was not an invalid… yet. As he drank, Dorian began chant his incantations, placing numbing wards around his shoulder. They glowed a dull blue before fading into the grey skin.

When he was done, Avance slipped his arm back into Cullen’s hands, without a word, head turned firmly away towards Dorian who remained hard at work on his left side.

The mark began to crack and fizzle.

“Time’s up, Dorian. If you have a plan… Guaahhaghh… Do… it now.” He huffed heavily at the mage.

The Tevinter nodded, his face a set mask. Cullen allowed his fingers to slip around Avance’s forearm, one hand moving to brace his shoulder down against the cot in anticipation.

Dorian’s hand twisted with a flourish and a purple blade flourished into existence, settling into his waiting hand.

The mark flashed and tore through the Inquisitor’s flesh as if in knowing protest.

Dorian placed a cautious hand over Avance’s cracked and greying skin, bringing the blade down to the flesh just below the elbow, where the worst of the anchor’s damage appeared to be. He looked to Cullen and nodded. The Commander applied downward pressure.

Avance looked straight to him. “I didn’t want you to see me like this.” The words were barely audible, spoken through gritted teeth.

Before Cullen could respond, Gabriel reappeared and placed a bit in Avance’s mouth for him to bite down on.

“Ready.”

“Cullen?”

“Ready.”

“Avance?”

A nod.

The blade cut through flesh and bone equally, like butter. The room filled with the stench of burning flesh and the Inquisitor’s gagged screams. Dorian moved the limb aside and set to cauterising the wound.

It would have been too much to think Avance would stay conscious for all of it, but Cullen still panicked when he went limp.

“Avance! Avance! Can you hear me?”

Dorian kept chanting.

“Avance!”

The herbalist stepped behind Dorian, waiting for the signal to apply the healing balm.

“Avance!! Dorian, do something!”

“He’s breathing! I can’t do anything more.”

“Avance… Please. Please be alright. Stay with me, please.”

The mage stepped away and Gabriel set to work applying the salve to the burnt skin.

“Please…”

Gabriel worked in silence as Cullen worried over the Inquisitor’s waning pulse.

“I’m not losing you…”

“Heartbeat is dropping.”

Gabriel stepped aside and Dorian swept back in, casting spells Cullen couldn’t even pretend to recognise.

“Dorian, do something!”

“I’m not a goddamn medic, Cullen!”

“Then find one!”

He threw the last comment at the poor herbalist who went dashing out of the room as if his life depended on it.

“Avance...”

Even Dorian paused when he heard Cullen’s tone. His work done, he stepped back.

“His pulse is returning to normal.”

They both breathed a little easier.

“I’ll just be outside… Call if you need me.”

Cullen didn’t respond. He just watched. Watched as the man who he had disagreed with, fought with… No- the man he had put his faith in, who he had fought for- slowly regained consciousness.

“… C-… Cul… Cullen…”

The commander’s heart soared.

“Is… Is it… done?”

Hands shifted until fingers intertwined as if by a will of their own.

Cullen could only nod. He felt a lump rising in his throat in the place of the words he longed to say but couldn’t.

A calm silence stretched before them and hands held on tight. Avance’s eyes stayed fixed on the ceiling above him, his breathing slowly getting shakier as emotions weeded their way into his heart whilst his defences were down.

“Is it as bad as I’m imagining?”

Cullen dropped his head with a thankful sigh, grateful to hear the Inquisitor’s voice regaining power. “Not at all. You put your trust in Dorian wisely.”

“As I do with you.”

His mismatched eyes were now on Cullen as he lifted his head. 

No more words were needed.

Fingers tightened as Avance summoned the courage to look at the damage. He took comfort in the new anchor that gripped him tight on his left side. This one would never harm him. This one was a new source of power Avance could never have anticipated.

It was his future.


End file.
